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David Higginbotham
When Ruger announced they were getting into the GLOCK Clone game, the news wasn’t immediately met with enthusiasm. Why would Ruger make a Gen 3 G19 clone? There are so many clones. So many. And there’s nothing wrong with the originals.
But the Ruger RXM is deeply layered. And the second layer comes from Magpul Industries. Those of us, myself included, that originally recoiled from the principle of Ruger making a clone—well—we were paying attention. The gun part of the gun, that’s Ruger. The plastics, though, are Magpul. And the combination is worth a closer look.
Magpul’s frame, known as the Enhanced Handgun Grip (EHG), is modular and not a serialized part. This is big. One of the main complaints with the stock GLOCK G19 (maybe answered, at last, by Gen 6) is the boxy feel of the grip. There’s never been a GLOCK, or a clone, with a modular grip.
Ruger developed the RXM’s Fire Control Insert (FCI), a concept that is decidedly more Sig than GLOCK or Ruger. And this, at the very least, makes this gun worthy of close examination.
Breaking Down the R x M of the Ruger RXM
R x M: Ruger and Magpul. These two giants have teamed up with a new twist on a classic from the last century.
Let’s detour back to a brief perspective on these two brands. Magpul has dominated add-on parts and plastic magazines for two decades. The company was founded in 1999 and has continued to grow. If you need mags, bipods, slings, stocks…, Magpul delivers.
While most of the catalog is accessories, the company has worked on experimental firearm designs. As a brand, Magpul continues to be both relevant (in a cutting edge perspective) and one of the most prolific and profitable companies in this industry.
Ruger, too, is a behemoth. As a gun maker, Ruger’s catalog is diverse. There are many niches that Ruger flat out dominates. They own rimfire. Their bolt-action rifles are solid and affordable. Their revolvers are respected, too—especially the single actions. The only area where the company doesn’t own a significant share of the market is shotguns.
Still, Ruger has struggled to gain widespread acceptance with a 9mm duty pistol. Nothing they’ve made this century has caught fire. Ruger fans want something to celebrate, but they weren’t expecting it to be a GLOCK clone.
The third company in this mix is not directly involved. That’s a bit weird. It’s GLOCK. At one point in 2020, I had counted 26 companies making clones of the G19. It was almost as bad as the sea of 1911s that emerged at the gun’s centennial anniversary (and Ruger made one of those, too). While we’re ostensibly here to celebrate the union of Ruger and Magpul, the elephant in the room is Austrian.
Unlocking the Potential of the Design
With both brands working on this honorific collaboration, the RXM stands out as a compelling leap forward for the modularity of the chassis design in the new FCI.
If this modular frame concept feels familiar with clones, it is understandable. There could be an obvious element of déjà vu. We were well into GLOCK’s Gen 4 line when the Polymer 80 craze kicked in and companies making complete clone slides, barrels, and parts really riffed off the custom DIY GLOCK Clone craze.
With an 80% frame, you no longer had to mar your factory frame with a Dremel tool, but could by an unfinished frame, complete the build, and mod it instead. This was super low risk, inexpensive, and easy to do.
Questions about the serialization of these 80% frames eventually grew litigious and contentious. At almost the same time, factory guns showed up with some dynamic changes (like the Walther PDP, and later the Springfield Echelon). Sig’s use of serialized chassis in the 320 and P365 families meant aftermarket companies like Icarus Precision could step in with aggressive ergonomic improvements to frames without the hassle of serialization (in the Form 4473 sense).
Ergonomics had always been the end-goal of the custom or semi-custom clones. And, if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, it remains the point here with the RXM, but with a radical twist. The Ruger RXM is a serviceable handgun out of the box. Yet in its stock configuration, the frame—without question—is not the serialized component that defines the RXM as a firearm.
If you don’t care for Magpul’s frame, you can replace it. If you modify the frame with some stippling and screw it up, you can replace it.
And the FCI accepts complete Gen 3 slides. If you don’t like the Ruger slide, barrel, or internals, you can replace them. There’s so much potential here.
The Stock RXM
Specifications
- Caliber: 9mm Luger
- Action: Striker-fired semi-auto
- Capacity: 15+1 rounds
- Barrel: 4-inch button-rifled 1:10 RH twist
- Dimensions: 7.15 inches long, 5.3 inches tall, 1-1.23 inches wide
- Weight: 23.2 ounces (empty)
- Sights: Co-witness height with tritium front and drift-adjustable steel rear
- Optics Compatibility: Direct mount for Trijicon RMR, Leupold DeltaPoint Pro, Shield RMSc, and Holosun K (closed-emitter optics may need adapters)
- Trigger: 5-pound pull
- Two Magpul PMAG GL9s
Ruger’s slide and barrel, internal components, sights… all of this is on par with what I’d expect from one of the other clones in this price range. The grip itself, especially considering that it comes from Magpul (a company that is known for exceptional work in plastics), is almost anticlimactic. The modularity and engineering required to keep the plastic frame open enough to accept the added dimensions of the FCI while not adding too much bulk to the outside dimensions makes this frame compelling.
This gun is compatible with most existing holsters for the G19s, and it has an FCI. This is no small accomplishment. But almost everything can be easily changed.
Interchangeable Parts
- Complete Gen 3 Slides
- Standard Glock 19 barrels (and aftermarket barrels).
- Recoil Spring Assemblies
- Extractors and Depressors
- Strikers, maritime-style cups and related components.
- Striker Springs and Cups
- Iron Sights
- Gen 3 Slide Cover Plates
- Magazines
- Gen 3 Magazine Releases
- Slide Stops/Releases
- Gen 3-compatible drop-in triggers that use the factory-style trigger housing
How Customizable Is the RXM?
At launch, the RXM had a standard G19 feel, but recently, the RXM line has expanded to include a threaded barrel (which takes the length out to that of a G17). Frames are available in various grip lengths (to accept the G19 sized magazines, or the 17 round G17 round mags), and they’re available in FDE and OD green.
It is what’s coming, though, that will define this build. When a gun has an FCI, or any serialized chassis, everything else is customizable. I have a P365 XMACRO Frankenstein that I carry IWB. It has pieces and parts from at least five different companies. The only part that came from SIG is the Fire Control Unit. And that potential is here in the RXM, too.
I’ve not seen the onslaught of aftermarket frames yet. Icarus Precision, my go-to for replacing polymer frames with metal, has just released a frame for the RXM, but I’ve not tried it yet. I use an Icarus frame on my XMACRO, and have run them on an Echelon, and can’t say enough about the improvements.
This will be the first big mod I make to the gun, and will (respectfully) set aside the physical vestige of Magpul’s contribution.
Shooting the RXM
Ruger’s RXM seems like a conservative clone in this light, but it shoots very much like a Gen 3 GLOCK. This is not a criticism. I had no issues with reliability, not even when I added a SilencerCo Spectre 9 to the end of the barrel.
The RXM’s grip texture is an improvement on Gen 1-5 GLOCKs. Its sights are taller. While the 5-pound trigger is crisp, with an easily definable reset, it is a modest improvement on an OEM trigger. While I’d note that these are improvements over an actual GLOCK, they are par for a clone, even the PSAs and others at lower price points.
All of this is to say that performance is excellent and reliable, which is exactly what is to be expected. If it were anything less, I wouldn’t even bother to write this.
Suppressing the RXM
If there’s a threaded barrel option available on any new gun, buy that option. You will never regret it. RXM’s threaded barrel has a pitch of ½” x 28, and is rifled with traditional lands and grooves rather than GLOCK’s polygonal flats. The Nielsen device on the Spectre 9 threads on cleanly, adding about 5” to the overall length.
When running a 9mm handgun suppressed, you can use any bog standard 9mm. I’d highly recommend finding 147 grain ball. The added weight keeps the muzzle velocity of the projectile right at or below the subsonic threshold, eliminating the crack that comes from a round breaking the sound barrier.
Shooting 147 grain, like the Federal American Eagle, or any subsonic 9mm, the Spectre 9 keeps the report hearing safe. Develop your sight picture with something like this—good ball range ammo. Then carry 147 JHPs for carry or security. Your terminal ballistic performance with the hollow points will be effective, and keeping the grain weights aligned will mean negligible impact shift.
Adding a full mag and a suppressor like the Spectre 9 is going to take the weight close to the two-pound mark, but less than four ounces of that is the suppressor. I shoot double-stack 9mms almost flat, so I tend to overcorrect when shooting suppressed and I end up dipping below my target line. It takes me a magazine to dial in the recoil impulse, and then I’m back in control and level.
In all of my range time with the suppressed RXM (and with it unsuppressed), I had no failures to feed, no failures to cycle, no failures at all. The RXM runs like it should—like a gun bearing the name of Ruger, and of Magpul. It runs like a clone. It runs like a GLOCK.
A GLOCK® Clone Worth Serious Consideration
If I were in the market for a clone, this would be at the top of my list. Ruger’s FCI alone means that this gun, which is priced around $500 mark, offers much more than any of the other clones on the market (and more than some that are three times the price).
Kudos to Ruger for going big. And kudos to Magpul for stepping in and adding their brand prowess to the project.
I look at the Ruger RXM as the ideal project gun. Strip away the Ruger slide and set aside the Magpul frame, and start over with the FCI, but do it incrementally, over time, as funds allow. You’ll end up with exactly what you want.
David Higginbotham
The post Why the Ruger RXM Is One of the Most Compelling GLOCK® Clones Available appeared first on SilencerCo.
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